Friday, December 4, 2015

How Green Was Our Valley: Shomyoji Citizen Forest 称名寺市民の森

In the
family of Yokohama Citizen Forests, there are two monks. One is Bugenji Temple 豊顕寺, another is Shomyoji Temple 称名寺in Kanazawa Bunko Town 金沢文庫. 10.7
ha Shomyoji Forest is definitely bigger in many ways. The Forest surrounds
Shomyoji Temple and Kanazawa-Bunko Museum. In about 10 minutes’ walk from the
Temple, we can reach to Yokohama Marine Park of 1 k sand beach with several
beach-volley courts. It is possible to pack your whole day in Kanazawa Bunko Town
by hiking, visiting historical sites, checking the latest art exhibition,
wind-surfing, and sea-food BBQing ... I know several Tokyonites who chose to go
to college in Yokohama and to live in Kanazawa Bunko Town. They seldom went to
see their mom (er, just a 30 min. train ride), or ventured into the downtown
Yokohama. Reason? Their neighborhood has everything. I admit it is a very cozy town.

To go to
Shomoyoji, the easiest would be on foot from Keikyu Kanazawa Bunko Station京急金沢文庫駅. The standard access to Shomyoji Forest is
first going to Shomyoji Temple, and then venture into the Forest behind. If you
can read Japanese, you’ll notice there are lots of road signs directing us to
Shomyoji Temple from Kanazawa Bunko Station East Exit. Having said that, I
recommend you to enter the Forest first, and then going down to the Temple.
Either way, it is less than 15 minutes’ walk from the Station to the Temple /
Forest. Leaving the Station and we meet Kanazawa Bunko Ekimae Traffic Light 金沢文庫駅前信号. Let’s cross the street, and turn LEFT (right
to the precinct of the Temple). Walk about 50 m or so to find Kanazawa Bunko
Koban-mae Traffic Light 金沢文庫交番前信号. Now, we turn right and the
road climbs up in an ordinary residential area. After finishing a U-turning
slope, first turn right and go straight. We’ll see steep steps ahead. It is the
entrance to the Forest.

East
Exit of Kanazawa Bunko Station

East
Exit also has a map of the townwith directions to sight-seeing spots.

Kanazawa
Bunko Ekimae Traffic Light

A
stairway to the Forest

Here
it is, at the top of the steps.

From
this entrance,we can see Kamariya Forest and beyond to the west.

Basically,
Shomyoji Forest is a part of Shomyoji Temple. The Temple was started as a
private prayer house for Hojoh Sanetoki 北条実時, a kind of Lord Chamberlain
for Hojoh Tokimune 北条時宗who governed Japan from Kamakura in the middle of the 13th
century. In 1267, the prayer house became Shomyoji Temple of the Shingon Ritsu
Sect 真言律宗, and served as the family temple for the Kanesawa-Hojoh
clan 金沢北条氏. So, the Forest is a typical Shasoh-rin 社叢林, i.e. a forest belonging to a religious institution. It also was a
private property, a garden, of one of the grandees for Japanese national
politics. After the Hojoh clan (including Kanesawa-Hojoh family) was
annihilated by the rebel army coming down from the Seya Forest in 1333, the
Temple became a pure religious (and academic; more for this below) institution
and suffered a gradual decline of 600 years. In 1897, the first modern Japanese
Prime Minister,Itoh Hirobumi伊藤博文 (yeah, that national enemy
for Korea), re-established the place as the archive for historical documents,
but the facility was destroyed by the 1924 Great Kanto Earthquake. Then, in
1930 Kanagawa Prefectural Government revived the place as the central library
for the Prefecture. After 1945, the City of Yokohama academically excavated the
remains of the property, put the neglected promenade and trekking roads in good
order to open the Citizen Forest in July 1979, and repaired the then-derelict
buildings and the pond. The entire project was completed in 1987. The 1950 m
trekking road shows this history. (Map, here.)

Temple
Gate 仁王門, rebuilt in 1818

Asin
Deva Kingsthe at the Temple Gate(阿行金剛力士立像sculpted in 1323;registered as Important Cultural Treasurefor Kanazawa
Prefecture 神奈川県重要文化財)

Yeah
Deva opposite to Asin at the Gate(吽行金剛力士立像also made in 1323;registered
as Important Cultural Treasurefor Kanazawa Prefecture)

The
Main Hall (Kondoh 金堂), rebuilt in 1681

Inside
of the Main Hall (Kondoh)

The
pond has several legendsincluding a tale of princess who was drawnand became
the island in the middle.The garden is in the Pure-land Style 浄土庭園 like
Byodoh-in in Kyoto(平等院UN World Heritage Site).Kanazawa-Bunko Museum has a historical map,registered at the Important Cultural National Artifacts国重要文化財,dated 1323 depicting this
pond and the temple.It confirms it is the latest remaining Pure-land Style
garden in Japan.

The
army of volunteer-guides donning a blue capcould tell you the story of Shomyoji
Temple.This was a very kind gentleman-volunteerat the entrance Info-booth.You can just approach them to ask for the tour, free of charge.(I don’t know
if there is somebodywho can manage foreign language, though …)

Toilet
of the Temple for tourists

First
of all, the Forest does not have a bamboo forest. Before, bamboo forest was
very important resource for ordinary Japanese life. It provided materials, i.e.
bamboo, for construction and daily necessities of people. Shomyoji Forest was
not for ordinary people; it was a private garden of the rich and powerful.
There was no need to have a bamboo forest. It also belongs to a historic
temple. Except around the temple buildings, human intervention to the
vegetation was kept to a minimum so that it consists of evergreen broad-leaved
trees, i.e. the biota of this part of Japan. Having said that, people have
entered the forest nearly for 900 years, which makes the trekking roads hard
with gnarled roots of large trees exposed here and there below the carpet of
fallen leaves. It may be an ideal training ground for trail runners. In one
fine Saturday morning of November, I’ve met a handful of them.

When
we enter the Forest in the way we approached, we immediately come to
Dai-no-Hiroba (台の広場Dai Open Space). It is almost at the beginning of the ridge way of the
hill. From there, the road, called Gyoda-no-Tori (行田の通りGyoda Street) gradually climbs
up to Hakkakudoh Hiroba (八角堂広場Octagonal Gazebo Open Space).
Oh, yes, before reaching to the Hakkakudoh Hiroba, there is another road going
down to Kanazawa-Bunko Museum. More to this later … From Hakkakudoh Hiroba, we
can have wonderful views of Marine Park and the ports of Yokosuka City. The
road going down from here to the Temple is called Kan’non-Dori (観音通りAvalokitesvara
Bodhisattva Street), and if you take this way you know the reason why. After
going down the steep stairs to Kan’non Hiroba 観音広場in the middle of the street,
there appears successive spots full of statues of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
They are 100 of them, and a kind of cheat-place for pilgrims to Bandoh 33Kan’non坂東33観音 (“33 temples with Bodhisttva in Kanto Region” which is a pilgrimage route,
well, similar to the route of Santiago de Compostela), Saigoku 33 Kan’non西国33観音 (; it’s
the itinerary for Kansai region), and Chichibu 34 Kan’non秩父34観音 (; it’s for Chichibu Mountainarea). You can spend your whole day by examining the feature of each of them J.

Dai-no Hiroba

Gyoda-no-Tori

Beyond
this stair is ...

Hakkakudoh
Hiroba

A view from Hakkakudoh Hiroba. The large cranes over there are forNissan Oppama Factory.They make Nissan Leafs.

The
Kan’non-dori “falling down” from Hakkakudoh Hiroba to

Kan’non
Hiroba

Lots
of Bodhisattvas

She
looks very gentle …

If you
continues to walk the ridgeway, we first come to Inariyama Rest Place 稲荷山休憩所, and
then to the grave of Sanetoki Hojoh. Going down the steps in front of the
graveyard, we come to the north-end of a field at the back of the temple.
According to the 1323 map, the place had several buildings for monks to study.
It was an ancient campus. Now it is really an open space surrounded by the
forest and the temple ... very open. Another road from the Graveyard is called
Hinatayama-dori 日向山通り. It runs through the eastern ridge of the hill
surrounding the Temple, and coming down to the south end of the field of the
former-campus ... The color of the sky over the field was of the sea. Open,
blue, and clear ...

Inariyama
Rest Place

The
graveyard for Kanasawa-Hojoh Clan

The
tombstone of Hojoh Sanetoki

The
open field behind the Temple.It had at least 5 lecture halls in the 14th
century

To the
field

And
now, I really must write about Kanasawa Bunko, because the Wikipedia entry of
the place in English is a junk. Western side of the Temple garden with the pond
is another open space, whose hill has two tunnels. One is closed with meshed
wires. Another leads us to Kanazawa-Bunko Museum. The space at the mouth of the
tunnels had a chateau of Kanasawa-Hojoh clan. Hojoh Sanetoki was a skilled
politician and a dilettante who was already famous for his intelligence when he
was 10 years old. Sanetoki started to collect books and in 1275 built the first
organized library in Japan (for private use, of course). He built the archive
not next to his chateau, but another side of the hill separated by the
fireproof hardpan. For the convenience of the book owner, they dug a tunnel to
connect two properties which is now covered by the wire-mesh for safety.
Sanetoki 実時treasured the books and thought the contingency “just in case.” His son
(Akitoki 顕時), his grandson (Sada’aki 貞顕), and his great-grandson
(Sadayuki 貞将who was killed in 1333) were also functioned as “Lord Chamberlain” for
Kamakura Government, which made them study traditional culture of Kyoto deeply
as their dad / grandpa. With their power and money, they continued to amass
lots of fine books at the time. Their love for learning and caution were paid
off. Even after their family was extinct, the library survived and was
maintained by Shomyoji Temple that became a seminary. From time to time the
grandees of Japanese politics supported Shomyoji Temple to maintain the
facility … some of them requested the return for their help. Tokugawa Ieyasu徳川家康moved
huge volumes from Kanasawa Bunko to Edo Castle (the current Imperial Palace).
The PM Itoh returned the books taken by Ieyasu to Kanasawa Bunko in the late 19th
century. In 1930 the place became the Central Library of Kanagawa Prefecture by
the national law. In 1954, it became Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa-Bunko Museum
specialized in historical documents and artefacts. The treasures of the Museum includes
5 National Treasures; portraits of 4 chiefs of Kanasawa-Hojoh clan, and the only
remaining copy in the world for The Wen Xuan 文選, the 5th century
anthology of classic Chinese poems composed in BC. (It is considered that it
was hand-copied in the 9th to 10th century.) The place is
an information center for researchers of Japanese Middle Age, publishes an
academic journal (“金沢文庫研究Kanazawa Bunko Kenkyu,” May 1955 -), and organizes numerous symposiums,
lecture series, and exhibition for Japanese history. At the moment, they
collaborate with Yugyoji Temple 遊行寺in Fujisawa City for an
exhibition of a national treasure, Ippen Hijiri-E (一遍聖絵“The pictured story of Saint
Ippen”) until December 13, 2015.

The
place where the chateau was.

The
tunnels. Older one is behind the trees on the right.

The
mouth of the old tunnel seen from the Museum

If you
come to the Museum directly from Dai-no-Hiroba,

… this
way,

going
down,

to the
museum.

Ippen 一遍was a funky scantly-clad
Buddhist monk who in the 13th century travelled around Japan dancing
for proselytizing. According to one of the ancient books displayed for the
exhibition, his way of sending holy messages was “shaking the head and moving
the shoulders” in an “indecent attire” and “very funny.” He established Jishu
Sect 時宗whose current HDQ is Yugyoji Temple in Fujisawa City. The main
exhibition for the show is the 12 volumes of the 13th century
Japanese, I would say, “manga” depicting the life story of Ippen in pictures
and words on silk. Kanzawa-Bunko exhibits 4 of them, and the rest are showed in
Yugyoji Temple and Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History 神奈川県立歴史博物館(in
Bashamichi Street 馬車道of downtown Yokohama) till December 13. The related display at the Kanazawa-Bunko
Museum includes stunning Toma Mandala (当麻曼荼羅, painted in the 17th
century for Jishu Sect). The exhibition shows us the result of an x-ray studies
of the “manga” indicating the artist of 800 years ago, Monk En’i 円伊,
first painted naked Ippen, and then covered his bodies in clothes. It was about
100 years before the trouble of Michelangelo ... Everybody had the same problem
... The manga says Ippen travelled all over Japan of lots of forests. I imagine
the most consumed paint for this work was green. How green was our valley …

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

My
family moved to Yokohama from Tokyo before I became 3 years old. Since then,
Yokohama is my home town. (Though, I cannot be Hamakko since I was born in Tokyo ... Hey, this is Japan!) I have watched my playground is changing always. I
hope you find Yokohama interesting place. With love, Naomi